I did it again this weekend. I fired up the ugly drum smoker.
Friday night on my way home I stopped at Costco and they had pork loin on for six dollars a kilo.
So I thought to myself, let’s do this. I bought and took home a 4 kg pork loin.
I rolled some plastic film onto the biggest cookie sheet I have and flopped the loin onto it and then showered it with store bought barbecue rub.
A good healthy coating, and then I pulled the plastic wrap up and around the loin and tucked it into the fridge for the night.
Morning time, I pulled the pork loin out and cut it into three approximately equal sized pieces. Then the weirdness. Keep your mind on the food. And out of the gutter.
I slid my chef’s knife into the centre of each of the loins and gave it a little twist to open up a little pocket in the loin. And then I slid a smokie into the centre of each loin. Focus on the food.
Then I went outside to get the Ugly Drum Smoker fired up. Lit the chimney thing, got the handfuls coals white hot, and then dumped them into the basket of hardwood charcoal briquettes in the bottom of the UDS.
I tossed in a generous handful of hickory wood chips (I couldn’t find my apple wood chips) and then put the lid on the drum to let it heat up.
Once up to 250° – about half an hour, I put the three pieces of pork loin on the racks in the drum.
Stuck a thermometer in each of the pieces of meat and one in the centre of drum to measure drum temperature, and it was rolling.
I left the bottom valve air intakes to the fire chamber wide open and the drum maintained a pretty steady 240°. I also had just one chimney/vent open on the top.
Two hours and 20 minutes after putting the pork on the rack the probes reached 153° and 143°. I pulled the loins off and took them in the house where I tented them with foil.
Only because I had a busy day planned did I leave them to rest for as long as I did. But when I sliced into them – wow. What a taste sensation!
The pork was still moist and the smokie in the middle? It added a very funky feature to the pork. When I do it again I’ll probably put multiple slashes in the smokie casing so the flavour can leak out more easily.
I will call this another Ugly Drum Smoker success! Next thing I want to try? A smoked meatloaf wrapped in a bacon weave.